Press Release: Angel Rodriguez-Diaz
New Works: 98.4
11.15.98
THE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM
New Works: 98.4
Teresita Fern‡ndez, MIAMI, FL & NEW YORK, NY
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, CHIANG MAI, THAILAND
Angel Rodr’guez-D’az, SAN ANTONIO, TX
Exhibition: December 11, 1998 ?nuary 17, 1999
Opening: Thursday, December 10, 1998, 6:30-8:30 PM
Artist Dialogue: Friday, December 11, 1998 at 6:30 PM
ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art | San Antonio presents New Works:
98.4, a series of installations by the current participants of our International Artist-in-
Residence Program. Teresita Fern‡ndez, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook and Angel
Rodr’guez-D’az were selected by the March 1996 IAIR Program Panel consisting of
Elizabeth Armstrong, David Avalos, Dana Friis-Hansen, Thelma Golden and Maaretta
Jaukkuri. An opening celebration will take place on Thursday, December 10 at 6:30 PM,
and the following evening, Hamza Walker, Director of Education at The Renaissance
Society at The University of Chicago, will moderate an artist dialogue.
Angel Rodr’guez-D’az
Angel Rodr’guez-D’az was born in 1955 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his
B.F.A. from the University of Puerto Rico and his M.F.A. from Hunter College in New
York City. Rodr’guez-D’az has exhibited his work throughout the 1980s and ?0s,
including solo shows at Intar Gallery, New York; Oller/Campeche Gallery, New York;
Ollantay Center for the Arts, Queens, NY; Mendelson Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; and The
Museum of Fine Arts, San Juan, Puerto Rico. His work has been included in numerous
group shows, including the San Antonio Museum of Art; Blue Star Art Space, San
Antonio, TX; Museo del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico; El Museo del Barrio, New York;
Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC; Mexican Fine Arts Center, Chicago,
IL; Art in General, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, New
York. He has been an artist-in-residence at Arts International, the Marie Walsh Sharpe
Foundation and Yaddo.
Rodr’guez-D’az is an accomplished painter who has pursued the social and political
boundaries of portraiture since the 1980s. His paintings celebrate the diversity of
individuals through the use of masterful brushstrokes and dynamic colors. In recent
years, Rodr’guez-D’az has experimented with aspects of installation, using found objects
and injecting a more direct social content into his work.
At ArtPace, Rodr’guez-D’az presents two visual environments exploring issues of
colonialism and representation titled Splendid Little War. In the gallery, the artist
has painted the walls black and showcases two large-scale, chalk-drawn murals. In the
tradition of political muralists, Rodr’guez-D’az collages images drawn from diverse
historical and cultural sources, including maps of the Carribean and Mexico, The Virgin
of Guadalupe, the Taco Bell Chihuahua, Uncle Sam, and the Alamo. A curtain of pennies
divides the space from the adjacent courtyard. The artist asks that visitors leave pennies
in the soldier helmets in the gallery space to benefit San Antonio's Esperanza Peace and
Justice Center.
On the exterior, Rodr’guez-D’az uses the façade of ArtPace's building as a canvas for
an enormous electric mural. A self-portrait, constructed of thousands of colored light
bulbs, flashes the message "Now You See Me, Now You Don't." This experimental
public art work injects accessibility and humor into a social commentary on cultural
history and representation. Acknowledging the centennial anniversary of the signing of
the Treaty of Paris, the piece will be illuminated each evening at 6:00 PM.
445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org
© 1998 Artpace San Antonio